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3   1822  01061    2695 


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LIBRARY 

UNItftRSITV  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


J 


A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 


A  WHEEL  WITHIN  AWHEEL 

HOW  I  LEARNED  TO 
RIDE    THE    BICYCLE 

WITH  SOME  REFLECTIONS  BY  THE  WAY 


BY 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 

Illustrates 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  TORONTO 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 
Bv  FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY. 


GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED 
TO 

LADY   HENRY  SOMERSET, 

WHO  GAVE  ME  "GLADYS," 
THAT   HARBINGER   OF   HEALTH   AND   HAPPINESS. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Miss  WlLLARD .Frontispiece 

A  LACK  OF  BALANCE facing  page  21 

EASTNOR  CASTLE 29 

"  So  EASY — WHEN  You  KNOW  How  " 36 

"  IT'S  DOGGED  AS  DOES  IT  " 44 

"  LET  Go — BUT  STAND  BY  " 57 

"  AT  LAST  "  . , 72 


A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 


PRELIMINARY 

[ROM  my  earliest  recollections,  and 
up  to  the  ripe  age  of  fifty-three,  I 
had  been  an  active  and  diligent 
worker  in  the  world.  This  sounds  absurd ; 
but  having  almost  no  toys  except  such  as  I 
could  manufacture,  my  first  plays  were  but 
the  outdoor  work  of  active  men  and  women 
on  a  small  scale.  Born  with  an  inveterate 
opposition  to  staying  in  the  house,  I  very 
early  learned  to  use  a  carpenter's  kit  and  a 
gardener's  tools,  and  followed  in  my  mimic 
way  the  occupations  of  the  poulterer  and  the 
farmer,  working  my  little  field  with  a  wooden 
plow  of  my  own  making,  and  felling  saplings 
9 


10 

with  an  ax  rigged  up  from  the  old  iron  of  the 
wagon- shop.  Living  in  the  country,  far  from 
the  artificial  restraints  and  conventions  by 
which  most  girls  are  hedged  from  the  activi- 
ties that  would  develop  a  good  physique,  and 
endowed  with  the  companionship  of  a  mother 
who  let  me  have  my  own  sweet  will,  I  "  ran 
wild  "  until  my  sixteenth  birthday,  when  the 
hampering  long  skirts  were  brought,  with 
their  accompanying  corset  and  high  heels ; 
my  hair  was  clubbed  up  with  pins,  and  I  re- 
member writing  in  my  journal,  in  the  first 
heartbreak  of  a  young  human  colt  taken  from 
its  pleasant  pasture,  "Altogether,  I  recognize 
that  my  occupation  is  gone." 

From  that  time  on  I  always  realized  and 
was  obedient  to  the  limitations  thus  imposed, 
though  in  my  heart  of  hearts  I  felt  their  un- 
wisdom even  more  than  their  injustice.  My 
work  then  changed  from  my  beloved  and 
breezy  outdoor  world  to  the  indoor  realm  of 
study,  teaching,  writing,  speaking,  and  went 
on  almost  without  a  break  or  pain  until  my 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  II 

fifty-third  year,  when  the  loss  of  my  mother 
accentuated  the  strain  of  this  long  period  in 
which  mental  and  physical  life  were  out  of 
balance,  and  I  fell  into  a  mild  form  of  what 
is  called  nerve-wear  by  the  patient  and  ner- 
vous prostration  by  the  lookers-on.  Thus 
ruthlessly  thrown  out  of  the  usual  lines  of 
reaction  on  my  environment,  and  sighing  for 
new  worlds  to  conquer,  I  determined  that  I 
would  learn  the  bicycle. 

An  English  naval  officer  had  said  to  me, 
after  learning  it  himself,  "  You  women  have 
no  idea  of  the  new  realm  of  happiness  which 
the  bicycle  has  opened  to  us  men."  Already  I 
knew  well  enough  that  tens  of  thousands  who 
could  never  afford  to  own,  feed,  and  stable 
a  horse,  had  by  this  bright  invention  enjoyed 
the  swiftness  of  motion  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  fascinating  feature  of  material  life,  the 
charm  of  a  wide  outlook  upon  the  natural 
world,  and  that  sense  of  mastery  which  is 
probably  the  greatest  attraction  in  horseback- 
riding.  But  the  steed  that  never  tires,  and  is 


12  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

"  mettlesome "  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
word,  is  full  of  tricks  and  capers,  and  to  hold 
his  head  steady  and  make  him  prance  to  suit 
you  is  no  small  accomplishment.  I  had  often 
mentioned  in  my  temperance  writings  that 
the  bicycle  was  perhaps  our  strongest  ally 
in  winning  young  men  away  from  public- 
houses,  because  it  afforded  them  a  pleasure 
far  more  enduring,  and  an  exhilaration  as 
much  more  delightful  as  the  natural  is  than 
the  unnatural.  From  my  observation  of  my 
own  brother  and  hundreds  of  young  men 
who  have  been  my  pupils,  I  have  always 
held  that  a  boy's  heart  is  not  set  in  him  to 
do  evil  any  more  than  a  girl's,  and  that  the 
reason  our  young  men  fall  into  evil  ways  is 
largely  because  we  have  not  had  the  wit  and 
wisdom  to  provide  them  with  amusements 
suited  to  their  joyous  youth,  by  means  of 
which  they  could  invest  their  superabundant 
animal  spirits  in  ways  that  should  harm  no 
one  and  help  themselves  to  the  best  develop- 
ment and  the  cleanliest  ways  of  living.  So 


HOW  1  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  13 

as  a  temperance  reformer  I  always  felt  a 
strong  attraction  toward  the  bicycle,  because 
it  is  the  vehicle  of  so  much  harmless  pleasure, 
and  because  the  skill  required  in  handling  it 
obliges  those  who  mount  to  keep  clear  heads 
and  steady  hands.  Nor  could  I  see  a  reason 
in  the  world  why  a  woman  should  not  ride 
the  silent  steed  so  swift  and  blithesome.  I 
knew  perfectly  well  that  when,  some  ten  or 
fifteen  years  ago,  Miss  Bertha  von  Hillern,  a 
young  German  artist  in  America,  took  it  into 
her  head  to  give  exhibitions  of  her  skill  in 
riding  the  bicycle  she  was  thought  by  some 
to  be  a  sort  of  semi-monster;  and  liberal  as 
our  people  are  in  their  views  of  what  a 
woman  may  undertake,  I  should  certainly 
have  felt  compromised,  at  that  remote  and 
benighted  period,  by  going  to  see  her  ride, 
not  because  there  was  any  harm  in  it,  but 
solely  because  of  what  we  call  in  homely 
phrase  "  the  speech  of  people."  But  behold! 
it  was  long  ago  conceded  that  women  might 
ride  the  tricycle — indeed,  one  had  been  pre- 


14  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

sented  to  me  by  my  friend  Colonel  Pope,  of 
Boston,  a  famous  manufacturer  of  these  swift 
roadsters,  as  far  back  as  1886;  and  I  had 
swung  around  the  garden-paths  upon  its  sad- 
dle a  few  minutes  every  evening  when  work 
was  over  at  my  Rest  Cottage  home.  I  had 
even  hoped  to  give  an  impetus  among  con- 
servative women  to  this  new  line  of  physical 
development  and  outdoor  happiness;  but 
that  is  quite  another  story  and  will  come  in 
later.  Suffice  it  for  the  present  that  it  did 
me  good,  as  it  doth  the  upright  in  heart,  to 
notice  recently  that  the  Princesses  Louise  and 
Beatrice  both  ride  the  tricycle  at  Balmoral ;  for 
I  know  that  with  the  great  mass  of  feminine 
humanity  this  precedent  will  have  exceeding 
weight — and  where  the  tricycle  prophesies 
the  bicycle  shall  ere  long  preach  the  gospel 
of  outdoors. 

For  we  are  all  unconsciously  the  slaves  of 
public  opinion.  When  the  hansom  first  came 
on  London  streets  no  woman  having  regard 
to  her  social  state  and  standing  would  have 
dreamed  of  entering  one  of  these  pavement 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  15 

gondoias  unless  accompanied  by  a  gentleman 
as  her  escort.  But  in  course  of  time  a  few 
women,  of  stronger  individuality  than  the 
average,  ventured  to  go  unattended;  later 
on,  use  wore  off  the  glamour  of  the  traditions 
which  said  that  women  must  not  go  alone, 
and  now  none  but  an  imbecile  would  hold 
herself  to  any  such  observance. 

A  trip  around  the  world  by  a  young  wo- 
man would  have  been  regarded  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ago  as  equivalent  to  social  out- 
lawry ;  but  now  young  women  of  the  highest 
character  and  talent  are  employed  by  leading 
journals  to  whip  around  the  world  "  on  time," 
and  one  has  done  so  in  seventy-three,  an- 
other in  seventy-four  days,  while  the  young 
women  recently  sent  out  by  an  Edinburgh 
newspaper  will  no  doubt  considerably  con- 
tract these  figures. 

As  I  have  mentioned,  Fraulein  von  Hillern 
is  the  first  woman,  so  far  as  I  know,  who  ever 
rode  a  bicycle,  and  for  this  she  was  consid- 
ered to  be  one  of  those  persons  who  classified 
nowhere,  and  who  could  not  do  so  except  to 


1 6  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

the  injury  of  the  feminine  guild  with  which 
they  were  connected  before  they  "  stepped 
out " ;  but  now,  in  France,  for  a  woman  to 
ride  a  bicycle  is  not  only  "  good  form,"  but 
the  current  craze  among  the  aristocracy. 

Since  Balaam's  beast  there  has  been  but 
little  authentic  talking  done  by  the  four- 
footed;  but  that  is  no  reason  why  the  two- 
wheeled  should  not  speak  its  mind,  and  the 
first  utterance  I  have  to  chronicle  in  the  softly 
flowing  vocables  of  my  bicycle  is  to  the  fol- 
lowing purport.  I  heard  it  as  we  trundled  off 
down  the  Priory  incline  at  the  suburban  home 
of  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  Reigate,  England ; 
it  said :  "  Behold,  I  do  not  fail  you  ;  I  am  not 
a  skittish  beastie,  but  a  sober,  well-conducted 
roadster.  I  did  not  ask  you  to  mount  or 
drive,  but  since  you  have  done  so  you  must 
now  learn  the  laws  of  balance  and  exploitation. 
I  did  not  invent  these  laws,  but  I  have  been 
built  conformably  to  them,  and  you  must 
suit  yourself  to  the  unchanging  regulations  of 
gravity,  general  and  specific,  as  illustrated  in 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  I  7 

me.  Strange  as  the  paradox  may  seem,  you 
will  do  this  best  by  not  trying  to  do  it  at  all. 
You  must  make  up  what  you  are  pleased  to 
call  your  mind — make  it  up  speedily,  or  you 
will  'be  cast  in  yonder  mud-puddle,  and  no 
blame  to  me  and  no  thanks  to  yourself.  Two 
things  must  occupy  your  thinking  powers  to 
the  exclusion  of  every  other  thing :  first,  the 
goal;  and,  second,  the  momentum  requisite 
to  reach  it.  Do  not  look  down  like  an  im- 
becile upon  the  steering-wheel  in  front  of 
you — that  would  be  about  as  wise  as  for  a 
nauseated  voyager  to  keep  his  optical  instru- 
ments fixed  upon  the  rolling  waves.  It  is 
the  curse  of  life  that  nearly  every  one  looks 
down.  But  the  microscope  will  never  set 
you  free;  you  must  glue  your  eyes  to  the 
telescope  for  ever  and  a  day.  Look  up  and 
off  and  on  and  out;  get  forehead  and  foot 
into  line,  the  latter  acting  as  a  rhythmic  spur 
in  the  flanks  of  your  equilibriated  equine ;  so 
shall  you  win,  and  that  right  speedily. 

"  It  was  divinely  said  that  the  kingdom  of 


l8  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

God  is  within  you.  Some  make  a  mysticism 
of  this  declaration,  but  it  is  hard  common 
sense ;  for  the  lesson  you  will  learn  from  me  is 
this :  every  kingdom  over  which  we  reign  must 
be  first  formed  within  us  on  what  the  psychic 
people  call  the  '  astral  plane,'  but  what  I  as  a 
bicycle  look  upon  as  the  common  parade- 
ground  of  individual  thought." 

THE   PROCESS 

Courtiers  wittily  say  that  horseback  riding 
is  the  only  thing  in  which  a  prince  is  apt  to 
excel,  for  the  reason  that  the  horse  never 
flatters  and  would  as  soon  throw  him  as  if  he 
were  a  groom.  Therefore  it  is  only  by  actu- 
ally mastering  the  art  of  riding  that  a  prince 
can  hold  his  place  with  the  noblest  of  the 
four-footed  animals. 

Happily  there  is  now  another  locomotive 
contrivance  which  is  no  flatterer,  and  which 
peasant  and  prince  must  master,  if  they  do 
this  at  all,  by  the  democratic  route  of  honest 
hard  work.  Well  will  it  be  for  rulers  when 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  19 

the  tough  old  Yorkshire  proverb  applies  to 
them  as  strictly  as  to  the  lowest  of  their  sub- 
jects :  "It's  dogged  as  does  it."  We  all  know 
the  old  saying,  "  Fire  is  a  good  servant,  but 
a  bad  master."  This  is  equally  true  of  the 
bicycle :  if  you  give  it  an  inch — nay,  a  hair — it 
will  take  an  ell — nay,  an  evolution — and  you  a 
contusion,  or,  like  enough,  a  perforated  knee- 
cap. 

Not  a  single  friend  encouraged  me  to  learn 
the  bicycle  except  an  active-minded  young 
school-teacher,  Miss  Luther,  of  my  home- 
town, Evanston,  who  came  several  times  with 
her  wheel  and  gave  me  lessons.  I  also  took 
a  few  lessons  in  a  stuffy,  semi-subterranean 
gallery  in  Chicago.  But  at  fifty-three  I  was 
at  more  disadvantage  than  most  people,  for 
not  only  had  I  the  impedimenta  that  result 
from  the  unnatural  style  of  dress,  but  I  also 
suffered  from  the  sedentary  habits  of  a  life- 
time. And  then  that  small  world  (which  is 
our  real  one)  of  those  who  loved  me  best, 
and  who  considered  themselves  largely  re- 


20  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

sponsible  for  my  every-day  methods  of  life, 
did  not  encourage  me,  but  in  their  affection- 
ate solicitude — and  with  abundant  reason — 
thought  I  should  "  break  my  bones "  and 
"spoil  my  future."  It  must  be  said,  how- 
ever, to  their  everlasting  praise,  that  they 
opposed  no  objection  when  they  s.aw  that 
my  will  was  firmly  set  to  do  this  thing;  on 
the  contrary,  they  put  me  in  the  way  of 
carrying  out  my  purpose,  and  lent  to  my 
laborious  lessons  the  light  of  their  counte- 
nances reconciled.  Actions  speak  so  much 
louder  than  words  that  I  here  set  before  you 
what  may  be  called  a  feminine  bicycler's  first 
position — at  least  it  was  mine. 

Given  a  safety-bicycle — pneumatic  tires 
and  all  the  rest  of  it  which  renders  the  pneu- 
matic safety  the  only  safe  Bucephalus — the 
gearing  carefully  wired  in  so  that  we  shall 
not  be  entangled.  "Woe  is  me!"  was  my 
first  exclamation,  naturally  enough  inter- 
preted by  my  outriders  "Whoa  is  me,"  and 


A  LACK  OF  BALANCE. 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  21 

they  "  whoaed  " — indeed,  we  did  little  else 
but  "  check  up." 

(Just  here  let  me  interpolate :  Learn  on 
a  low  machine,  but  "  fly  high  "  when  once 
you  have  mastered  it,  as  you  have  much 
more  power  over  the  wheels  and  can  get  up 
better  speed  with  a  less  expenditure  of  force 
when  you  are  above  the  instrument  than 
when  you  are  at  the  back  of  it.  And  re- 
member this  is  as  true  of  the  world  as  of  the 
wheek) 

The  order  of  evolution  was  something  like 
this:  First,  three  young  Englishmen,  all 
strong-armed  and  accomplished  bicyclers, 
held  the  machine  in  place  while  I  climbed 
timidly  into  the  saddle.  Second,  two  well- 
disposed  young  women  put  in  all  the  power 
they  had,  until  they  grew  red  in  the  face,  off- 
setting each  other's  pressure  on  the  cross-bar 
and  thus  maintaining  the  equipoise  to  which 
I  was  unequal.  Third,  one  walked  beside 
me,  steadying  the  ark  as  best  she  could  by 


22  A   WHEEL   W1THM  A   WHEEL 

holding  the  center  of  the  deadly  cross-bar,  to 
let  go  whose  handles  meant  chaos  and  col- 
lapse. After  this  I  was  able  to  hold  my  own 
if  I  had  the  moral  support  of  my  kind  trainers, 
and  it  passed  into  a  proverb  among  them,  the 
short  emphatic  word  of  command  I  gave 
them  at  every  few  turns  of  the  wheel :  "  Let 
go,  but  stand  by."  Still  later  everything 
\\fos  learned — how  to  sit,  how  to  pedal,  how 
to  turn,  how  to  dismount;  but  alas!  how  to 
vault  into  the  saddle  I  found  not;  that  was 
the  coveted  power  that  lingered  long  and 
would  not  yield  itself. 

That  which  caused  the  many  failures  I  had 
in  learning  the  bicycle  had  caused  me  failures 
in  life ;  namely,  a  certain  fearful  looking  for 
of  judgment;  a  too  vivid  realization  of  the 
uncertainty  of  everything  about  me ;  an  un- 
derlying doubt — at  once,  however  (and  this  is 
all  that  saved  me),  matched  and  overcome  by 
the  determination  not  to  give  in  to  it. 

The  best  gains  that  we  make  come  to  us 
after  an  interval  of  rest  which  follows  stren- 


HOW  1  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  23 

uous  endeavor.  Having,  as  I  hoped,  mas- 
tered the  rudiments  of  bicycling,  I  went  away 
to  Germany  and  for  a  fortnight  did  not  even 
see  the  winsome  wheel.  Returning,  I  had 
the  horse  brought  round,  and  mounted  with 
no  little  trepidation,  being  assisted  by  one 
of  my  faithful  guides;  but  behold!  I  found 
that  in  advancing,  turning,  and  descending  I 
was  much  more  at  home  than  when  I  had 
last  exercised  that  new  intelligence  in  the 
muscles  which  had  been  the  result  of  repeti- 
tions resolutely  attempted  and  practised  long. 

Another  thing  I  found  is  that  we  carry  in 
the  mind  a  picture  of  the  road;  and  if  it  is 
humpy  by  reason  of  pebbles,  even  if  we  steer 
clear  of  them,  we  can  by  no  means  skim  along 
as  happily  as  when  its  smoothness  facilitates 
the  pleasing  impression  on  the  retina ;  indeed, 
the  whole  science  and  practice  of  the  bicycle 
is  "in  your  eye"  and  in  your  will;  the  rest 
is  mere  manipulation. 

As  I  have  said,  in  many  curious  particulars 
the  bicycle  is  like  the  world.  When  it  had 


24  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

thrown  me  painfully  once  (which  was  the 
extent  of  my  downfalls  during  the  entire  pro- 
cess of  learning,  and  did  not  prevent  me  from 
resuming  my  place  on  the  back  of  the  treach- 
erous creature  a  few  minutes  afterward),  and 
more  especially  when  it  threw  one  of  my 
dearest  friends,  hurting  her  knee  so  that  it 
was  painful  for  a  month,  then  for  a  time 
Gladys  had  gladsome  ways  for  me  no  longer, 
but  seemed  the  embodiment  of  misfortune 
and  dread.  Even  so  the  world  has  often 
seemed  in  hours  of  darkness  and  despon- 
dency ;  its  iron  mechanism,  its  pitiless  grind, 
its  swift,  silent,  on-rolling  gait  have  oppressed 
to  pathos,  if  not  to  melancholy.  Good  health 
and  plenty  of  oxygenated  air  have  promptly 
restored  the  equilibrium.  But  how  many  a 
fine  spirit,  to  finest  issues  touched,  has  been 
worn  and  shredded  by  the  world's  mill  until 
in  desperation  it  flung  itself  away.  We  can 
easily  carp  at  those  who  quit  the  crowded 
race-course  without  so  much  as  saying  "  By 
your  leave  " ;  but  "  let  him  that  thinketh  he 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  2$ 

standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall."  We  owe  it 
to  nature,  to  nurture,  to  our  environments, 
and,  most  of  all,  to  our  faith  in  God,  that  we, 
too,  do  not  cry,  like  so  many  gentle  hearts  less 
brave  and  sturdy,  "Anywhere,  anywhere,  out 
of  the  world." 

Gradually,  item  by  item,  I  learned  the  lo- 
cation of  every  screw  and  spring,  spoke  and 
tire,  and  every  beam  and  bearing  that  went 
to  make  up  Gladys.  This  was  not  the  lesson 
of  a  day,  but  of  many  days  and  weeks,  and  it 
had  to  be  learned  before  we  could  get  on 
well  together.  To  my  mind  the  infelicities 
of  which  we  see  so  much  in  life  grow  out  of 
lack  of  time  and  patience  thus  to  study  and 
adjust  the  natures  that  have  agreed  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  man  to  stand  by  one  another 
to  the  last.  They  will  not  take  the  pains,  they 
have  not  enough  specific  gravity,  to  balance 
themselves  in  their  new  environment.  In- 
deed, I  found  a  whole  philosophy  of  life  in  the 
wooing  and  the  winning  of  my  bicycle. 

Just  as  a  strong  and  skilful  swimmer  takes 


26  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

the  waves,  so  the  bicycler  must  learn  to  take 
such  waves  of  mental  impression  as  the  pass- 
ing of  a  gigantic  hay- wagon,  the  sudden  ob- 
trusion of  black  cattle  with  wide-branching 
horns,  the  rattling  pace  of  high-stepping 
steeds,  or  even  the  swift  transit  of  a  railway- 
train.  At  first  she  will  be  upset  by  the  ap- 
parition of  the  smallest  poodle,  and  not  until 
she  has  attained  a  wide  experience  will  she 
hold  herself  steady  in  presence  of  the  critical 
eyes  of  a  coach-and-four.  But  all  this  is  a 
part  of  that  equilibration  of  thought  and  ac- 
tion by  which  we  conquer  the  universe  in 
conquering  ourselves. 

I  finally  concluded  that  all  failure  was  from 
a  wobbling  will  rather  than  a  wobbling  wheel. 
I  felt  that  indeed  the  will  is  the  wheel  of  the 
mind — its  perpetual  motion  having  been 
learned  when  the  morning  stars  sang  to- 
gether. When  the  wheel  of  the  mind  went 
well  then  the  rubber  wheel  hummed  merrily ; 
but  specters  of  the  mind  there  are  as  well  as 
of  the  wheel.  In  the  aggregate  of  percep- 


HOW  I  LEARNED    TO  RIDE  2J 

tion  concerning  which  we  have  reflected  and 
from  which  we  have  deduced  our  generaliza- 
tions upon  the  world  without,  within,  above, 
there  are  so  many  ghastly  and  fantastical 
images  that  they  must  obtrude  themselves 
at  certain  intervals,  like  filmy  bits  of  glass 
in  the  turn  of  the  kaleidoscope.  Probably 
every  accident  of  which  I  had  heard  or  read 
in  my  half-century  tinged  the  uncertainty 
that  by  the  correlation  of  forces  passed  over 
into  the  tremor  that  I  felt  when  we  began  to 
round  the  terminus  bend  of  the  broad  Priory 
walk.  And  who  shall  say  by  what  original 
energy  the  mind  forced  itself  at  once  from 
the  contemplation  of  disaster  and  thrust  into 
the  very  movement  of  the  foot  on  the  pedal 
a  concept  of  vigor,  safety,  and  success?  I 
began  to  feel  that  myself  plus  the  bicycle 
equaled  myself  plus  the  world,  upon  whose 
spinning-wheel  we  must  all  learn  to  ride,  or 
fall  into  the  sluiceways  of  oblivion  and  despair. 
That  which  made  me  succeed  with  the  bicycle 
was  precisely  what  had  gained  me  a  measure 


28  A  WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

of  success  in  life — it  was  the  hardihood  of 
spirit  that  led  me  to  begin,  the  persistence  of 
will  that  held  me  to  my  task,  and  the  patience 
that  was  willing  to  begin  again  when  the  last 
stroke  had  failed.  And  so  I  found  high 
moral  uses  in  the  bicycle  and  can  commend 
it  as  a  teacher  without  pulpit  or  creed.  He 
who  succeeds,  or,  to  be  more  exact  in  hand- 
ing over  my  experience,  she  who  succeeds  in 
gaining  the  mastery  of  such  an  animal  as 
Gladys,  will  gain  the  mastery  of  life,  and  by 
exactly  the  same  methods  and  character- 
istics. 

One  of  the  first  things  I  learned  was  that 
unless  a  forward  impetus  were  given  within 
well-defined  intervals,  away  we  went  into  the 
gutter,  rider  and  steed.  And  I  said  to  my- 
self :  "  It  is  the  same  with  all  reforms :  some- 
times they  seem  to  lag,  then  they  barely 
balance,  then  they  begin  to  oscillate  as  if 
they  would  lose  the  track  and  tumble  to  one 
side;  but  all  they  need  is  a  new  impetus  at 
the  right  moment  on  the  right  angle,  and 


HOIV  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  29 

away  they  go  again  as  merrily  as  if  they  had 
never  threatened  to  stop  at  all." 

On  the  Castle  terrace  we  went  through  a 
long,  narrow  curve  in  a  turret  to  seek  a 
broader  esplanade.  As  we  approached  it  I 
felt  wrought  up  in  my  mind,  a  little  uncertain 
in  my  motions;  and  for  that  reason,  on  a 
small  scale,  my  quick  imagination  put  before 
me  pictures  of  a  "standing  from  under"  on 
the  part  of  the  machine  and  damaging  bruises 
against  the  pitiless  walls.  But  with  a  little 
unobtrusive  guiding  by  one  who  knew  better 
than  I  how  to  do  it  we  soon  came  out  of  the 
dim  passage  on  to  the  broad,  bright  terrace 
we  sought,  and  in  an.  instant  my  fears  were 
as  much  left  behind  as  if  I  had  not  had  them. 
So  it  will  be,  I  think,  I  hope — nay,  I  believe 
— when,  children  that  we  are,  we  tremble  on 
the  brink  and  fear  to  launch  away ;  but  we 
shall  find  that  death  is  only  a  bend  in  the 
river  of  life  that  sets  the  current  heavenward. 

One  afternoon,  on  the  terrace  at  Eastnor 
Castle — the  most  delightful  bicycle  gallery  I 


30  A   WHEEL   WHHIN  A   WHEEL 

have  found  anywhere — I  fell  to  talking  with 
a  young  companion  about  New-Year  resolu- 
tions. It  was  just  before  Christmas,  but  the 
sky  was  of  that  moist  blue  that  England  only 
knows,  and  the  earth  almost  steamy  in  the 
mild  sunshine,  while  the  soft  outline  of  the 
famous  Malvern  Hills  was  restful  as  the  little 
lake  just  at  our  feet,  where  swans  were  sail- 
ing or  anchoring  according  to  their  fancy. 

One  of  us  said :  "  I  have  already  chosen 
my  motto  for  1894,  and  it  is  this,  from  a 
teacher  who  so  often  said  to  her  pupils,  when 
meeting  them  in  corridor  or  recitation- room, 
'  I  have  heard  something  nice  about  you,' 
that  it  passed  into  a  proverb  in  the  school. 
Now  I  have  determined  that  my  mental  atti- 
tude toward  everybody  shall  be  the  same  that 
these  words  indicate.  The  meaning  is  iden- 
tical with  that  of  the  inscription  on  the  fire- 
place in  my  den  at  home — '  Let  something 
good  be  said.'  I  remember  mentioning  to 
a  literary  friend  that  this  was  what  I  had 
chosen,  and  so  far  was  he  from  perceiving 


HOW  I  LEARNED    TO  RIDE  31 

my  intention  that  he  sarcastically  remarked, 
'  Are  you  then  afraid  that  people  will  say 
dull  things  unless  you  set  this  rule  before 
them  ? '  But  my  thought  then  was  as  it  is 
now,  that  we  should  apply  in  our  discussions 
of  people  and  things  the  rule  laid  down  by 
Coleridge,  namely,  '  Look  for  the  good  in 
everything  that  you  behold  and  every  per- 
son, but  do  not  decline  to  see  the  defects  if 
they  are  there,  and  to  refer  to  them.' ' 

"That  is  an  excellent  motto,"  brightly  re- 
plied the  other,  "  but  if  we  followed  it  life 
would  not  be  nearly  so  amusing  as  it  is  now. 
I  have  several  friends  whose  rule  is  never  to 
say  any  harm  of  anybody,  and  to  my  mind 
this  cripples  their  development,  for  the  ten- 
dency of  such  a  method  is  to  dull  one's  pow- 
ers of  discrimination." 

"  But,"  said  the  first  speaker,  "  would  not 
a  medium  course  be  better? — such  a  one, 
for  instance,  as  my  motto  suggests.  This 
would  not  involve  keeping  silence  about  the 
faults  of  persons  and  things,  but  would  de- 


32  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

velop  that  cheerful  atmosphere  which  helps 
to  smooth  the  rough  edges  of  life,  and  at  the 
same  time  does  not  destroy  the  critical  faculty, 
because  you  are  to  tell  the  truth  and  the  whole 
truth  concerning  those  around  you,  whereas 
the  common  custom  is  to  speak  much  of  de- 
fects and  little  or  not  at  all  of  merits." 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "but  it  is  not  half 
so  entertaining  to  speak  of  virtues  as  of  faults, 
especially  in  this  country ;  if  you  don't  criti- 
cize you  can  hardly  talk  at  all,  because  the 
English  dwell  a  great  deal  on  what  we  in 
America  call  '  the  selvage  side '  of  things." 

"  Have  you,  then,  noticed  this  as  a  national 
peculiarity  after  ten  years  of  observation?  " 

"  Yes ;  and  I  have  often  heard  it  remarked, 
not  only  by  our  own  countrymen,  but  by  the 
people  here." 

"What  do  you  think  explains  it?" 

"  Well,  I  am  inclined  to  apply  the  theory 
of  M.  Taine,  the  great  French  critic,  to  most 
of  the  circumstances  of  life,  and  I  should  say 
it  was  the  climate;  its  uncertainty,  its  con- 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  33 

stant  changes,  the  heaviness  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, the  amount  of  fog,  the  real  stress  and 
strain  to  live  that  results  from  trying  physical 
conditions  added  to  the  razor-sharp  edge  of 
business  and  social  competition  and  the  close 
contact  that  comes  of  packing  forty  millions 
of  people  of  pronounced  individuality  on  an 
island  no  bigger  than  the  State  of  Georgia. 
To  my  mind  the  wonder  is  that  they  behave 
so  well!" 

Once,  when  I  grew  somewhat  discouraged 
and  said  that  I  had  made  no  progress  for  a 
day  or  two,  my  teacher  told  me  that  it  was 
just  so  when  she  learned :  there  were  grow- 
ing days  and  stationary  days,  and  she  had 
always  noticed  that  just  after  one  of  these 
last  dull,  depressing,  and  dubious  intervals 
she  seemed  to  get  an  uplift  and  went  ahead 
better  than  ever.  It  was  like  a  spurt  in  row- 
ing. This  seems  to  be  the  law  of  progress 
in  everything  we  do ;  it  moves  along  a  spiral 
rather  than  a  perpendicular;  we  seem  to  be 
actually  going  out  of  the  way,  and  yet  it 


34  A  WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

turns  out  that  we  were  really  moving  upward 
all  the  time. 

One  day,  when  my  most  expert  trainer 
twisted  the  truth  a  little  that  she  might  en- 
courage me,  I  was  reminded  of  an  anecdote. 

In  this  practical  age  an  illustration  of  the 
workings  of  truthfulness  will  often  help  a 
child  more  than  any  amount  of  exhortation 
concerning  the  theory  thereof.  For  instance, 
a  father  in  that  level-headed  part  of  the 
United  States  known  as  "  out  West "  found 
that  his  little  boy  was  falling  into  the  habit  of 
telling  what  was  not  true ;  so  he  said  to  him 
at  the  lunch-table,  "Johnnie,  I  will  come 
around  with  a  horse  and  carriage  at  four 
o'clock  to  take  you  and  mama  for  a  drive  this 
afternoon."  The  boy  was  in  high  spirits, 
and  watched  for  his  father  at  the  gate ;  but 
the  hours  passed  by  until  six  o'clock,  when 
that  worthy  appeared  walking  up  the  street 
in  the  most  unconcerned  manner ;  and  when 
Johnnie,  full  of  indignation  and  astonish- 
ment, asked  him  why  he  did  not  come  as  he 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  35 

had  promised,  the  father  said,  "  Oh,  my  boy, 
I  just  took  it  into  my  head  that  I  would 
tell  you  a  lie  about  the  matter,  just  as  you 
have  begun  telling  lies  to  me."  The  boy  be- 
gan to  cry  with  mingled  disappointment  and 
shame  to  think  his  father  would  do  a  thing 
like  that ;  whereupon  the  father  took  the  lit- 
tle fellow  on  his  knee  and  said :  "  This  has  all 
been  done  to  show  you  what  mischief  comes 
from  telling  what  is  not  true.  It  spoils  every- 
body's good  time.  If  you  cannot  believe  what 
I  say  and  I  cannot  believe  what  you  say,  and 
nobody  can  believe  what  anybody  says,  then 
the  world  cannot  go  on  at  all ;  it  would  have 
to  stop  as  the  old  eight- day  clock  did  the 
other  day,  making  us  all  late  to  dinner.  It 
is  only  because,  as  a  rule,  we  can  believe  in 
one  another's  word  that  we  are  able  to  have 
homes,  do  business,  and  enjoy  life.  Who- 
ever goes  straight  on  telling  the  truth  helps 
more  by  that  than  he  could  in  any  other  one 
way  to  build  up  the  world  into  a  beautiful 
and  happy  place ;  and  every  time  anybody 


36  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

tells  what  is  not  true  he  helps  to  weaken 
everybody's  confidence  in  everybody  else, 
and  to  spoil  the  good  time,  not  of  himself 
alone,  but  of  all  those  about  him." 

MY  TEACHERS 

I  studied  my  various  kind  teachers  with 
much  care.  One  was  so  helpful  that  but  for 
my  protest  she  would  fairly  have  carried  me 
in  her  arms,  and  the  bicycle  to  boot,  the  whole 
distance.  This  was  because  she  had  not  a 
scintilla  of  knowledge  concerning  the  machine, 
and  she  did  not  wish  me  to  come  to  grief 
through  any  lack  on  her  part. 

Another  was  too  timorous ;  the  very  twit- 
ter of  her  face,  swiftly  communicated  to  her 
arm  and  imparted  to  the  quaking  cross-bar, 
convulsed  me  with  an  inward  fear ;  therefore, 
for  her  sake  and  mine,  I  speedily  counted  her 
out  from  the  faculty  in  my  bicycle  college. 

Another  (and  she,  like  most  of  my  teachers, 
was  a  Londoner)  was  herself  so  capable,  not  to 


"SO  HASY— WHHN  YOU   KNOW  HOW." 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  37 

say  adventurous,  and  withal  so  solicitous  for 
my  best  good,  that  she  elicited  my  admiration 
by  her  ingenious  mixture  of  cheering  me  on 
and  holding  me  back;  the  latter,  however, 
predominated,  for  she  never  relinquished  her 
strong  grasp  on  the  cross-bar.  She  was  a 
fine,  brave  character,  somewhat  inclined  to  a 
pessimistic  view  of  life  because  of  severe  ex- 
perience at  home,  which,  coming  to  her  at  a 
pitifully  early  period,  when  brain  and  fancy 
were  most  impressionable,  wrought  an  in- 
justice to  a  nature  large  and  generous — one 
which  under  happier  skies  would  have  blos- 
somed out  into  a  perfect  flower  of  woman- 
hood. My  offhand  thinkings  aloud,  to  which 
I  have  always  been  greatly  given,  especially 
when  in  genial  company, she  seemed  to  "catch 
on  the  fly,"  as  a  reporter  impales  an  idea  on 
his  pencil-point.  We  had  no  end  of  what 
we  thought  to  be  good  talk  of  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  and  the  waters  under  the 
earth;  of  the  mystery  that  lies  so  closely 
round  this  cradle  of  a  world,  and  all  the 


38  A   WHEEL  WITHM  A  WHEEL 

varied  and  ingenious  ways  of  which  the  bi- 
cycle, so  slow  to  give  up  its  secret  to  a  care- 
worn and  inelastic  pupil  half  a  century  old, 
was  just  then  our  whimsical  and  favorite 
symbol. 

We  rejoiced  together  greatly  in  perceiving 
the  impetus  that  this  uncompromising  but 
fascinating  and  inimitably  capable  machine 
would  give  to  that  blessed  "  woman  ques- 
tion "  to  which  we  were  both  devoted ;  for 
we  had  earned  our  own  bread  many  a  year, 
and  she,  although  more  than  twenty  years 
my  junior,  had  accumulated  an  amount  of 
experience  well-nigh  as  great,  because  she 
had  lived  in  the  world's  heart,  or  the  world's 
carbuncle  (just  as  one  chooses  to  regard  what 
has  been  called  in  literary  phrase  the  capital 
of  humanity).  We  saw  that  the  physical  de- 
velopment of  humanity's  mother-half  would 
be  wonderfully  advanced  by  that  universal 
introduction  of  the  bicycle  sure  to  come 
about  within  the  next  few  years,  because  it 
is  for  the  interest  of  great  commercial  monop- 


HOW  1  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  39 

olies  that  this  should  be  so,  since  if  women 
patronize  the  wheel  the  number  of  buyers  will 
be  twice  as  large.  If  women  ride  they  must, 
when  riding,  dress  more  rationally  than  they 
have  been  wont  to  do.  If  they  do  this  many 
prejudices  as  to  what  they  may  be  allowed  to 
wear  will  melt  away.  Reason  will  gain  upon 
precedent,  and  ere  long  the  comfortable,  sen- 
sible, and  artistic  wardrobe  of  the  rider  will 
make  the  conventional  style  of  woman's  dress 
absurd  to  the  eye  and  unendurable  to  the  un- 
derstanding. A  reform  often  advances  most 
rapidly  by  indirection.  An  ounce  of  practice 
is  worth  a  ton  of  theory ;  and  the  graceful 
and  becoming  costume  of  woman  on  the  bi- 
cycle will  convince  the  world  that  has  brushed 
aside  the  theories,  no  matter  how  well  con- 
structed, and  the  arguments,  no  matter  how 
logical,  of  dress- reformers. 

A  woman  with  bands  hanging  on  her  hips, 
and  dress  snug  about  the  waist  and  chokingly 
tight  at  the  throat,  with  heavily  trimmed 
skirts  dragging  down  the  back  and  numerous 


40  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

folds  heating  the  lower  part  of  the  spine,  and 
with  tight  shoes,  ought  to  be  in  agony.  She 
ought  to  be  as  miserable  as  a  stalwart  man 
would  be  in  the  same  plight.  And  the  fact 
that  she  can  coolly  and  complacently  assert 
that  her  clothing  is  perfectly  easy,  and  that 
she  does  not  want  anything  more  comfortable 
or  convenient,  is  the  most  conclusive  proof 
that  she  is  altogether  abnormal  bodily,  and 
not  a  little  so  in  mind. 

We  saw  with  satisfaction  the  great  advan- 
tage in  good  fellowship  and  mutual  under- 
standing between  men  and  women  who  take 
the  road  together,  sharing  its  hardships  and 
rejoicing  in  the  poetry  of  motion  through 
landscapes  breathing  nature's  inexhaustible 
charm  and  skyscapes  lifting  the  heart  from 
what  is  to  what  shall  be  hereafter.  We  dis- 
coursed on  the  advantage  to  masculine  char- 
acter of  comradeship  with  women  who  were 
as  skilled  and  ingenious  in  the  manipulation 
of  the  swift  steed  as  they  themselves.  We 
contended  that  whatever  diminishes  the  sense 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  4! 

of  superiority  in  men  makes  them  more  man- 
ly, brotherly,  and  pleasant  to  have  about ;  we 
felt  sure  that  the  bluff,  the  swagger,  the  bra- 
vado of  young  England  in  his  teens  would  not 
outlive  the  complete  mastery  of  the  outdoor 
arts  in  which  his  sister  is  now  successfully 
engaged.  The  old  fables,  myths,  and  follies 
associated  with  the  idea  of  woman's  incom- 
petence to  handle  bat  and  oar,  bridle  and  rein, 
and  at  last  the  cross-bar  of  the  bicycle,  are 
passing  into  contempt  in  presence  of  the  nim- 
bleness,  agility,  and  skill  of  "  that  boy's  sis- 
ter" ;  indeed,  we  felt  that  if  she  continued  to 
improve  after  the  fashion  of  the  last  decade 
her  physical  achievements  will  be  such  that  it 
will  become  the  pride  of  many  a  ruddy  youth 
to  be  known  as  "  that  girl's  brother."  As  we 
discoursed  of  life,  death,  and  the  judgment  to 
come,  of  "  man's  inhumanity  to  man,"  as  well 
as  to  beasts,  birds,  and  creeping  things,  we 
frequently  recurred  to  a  phrase  that  has  be- 
come habitual  with  me  in  these  later  years 
when  other  worlds  seem  anchored  close  along- 


42  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

side  this,  and  when  the  telephone,  the  phono- 
graph, and  the  microphone  begin  to  show  us 
that  every  breath  carries  in  itself  not  only  the 
power,  but  the  scientific  certainty  of  registra- 
tion :  "  Well,  one  thing  is  certain :  we  shall 
meet  it  in  the  ether." 

One  of  my  companions  in  the  tribulation 
of  learning  the  bicycle,  and  the  grace  of  its 
mastery,  was  a  tall,  bright-faced,  vigorous- 
minded  young  Celt  who  is  devoted  to  every 
good  word  and  work  and  has  had  much  ex- 
perience with  the  "  submerged  tenth,"  living 
among  them  and  trying  to  build  character 
among  those  waste  places  of  humanity.  I 
set  out  to  teach  this  young  woman  the  bi- 
cycle, and  while  she  took  her  lesson — which, 
as  she  is  young,  elastic,  and  long-limbed, 
was  vastly  less  difficult  than  mine — we  talked 
of  many  things :  American  women,  and  why 
they  do  not  walk;  the  English  lower  class, 
and  why  they  are  less  vigorous  than  the 
Irish ;  the  English  girl  of  the  slums,  and  why 
she  is  less  self-respecting  than  an  Irish  girl  in 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  43 

the  same  station.  "There  are  many  things 
for  which  we  cannot  account,"  said  my  young 
friend ;  whereupon,  with  the  self-elected  men- 
torship  of  my  half-century,  I  oracularly  ob- 
served :  "  Cosmos  has  not  a  consequence 
without  a  cause ;  it  is  the  business  of  reason 
to  seek  for  causes,  and,  if  it  cannot  make 
sure  of  them,  to  construct  for  itself  theories 
as  to  what  they  are  or  will  turn  out  to  be 
when  found.  But  the  trouble  is,  when  we 
have  framed  our  theory,  we  come  to  look 
upon  it  as  our  child,  that  we  have  brought 
into  the  world,  nurtured,  and  trained  up  by 
hand.  The  curse  of  life  is  that  men  will 
insist  on  holding  their  theories  as  true  and 
imposing  them  on  others;  this  gives  rise  to 
creeds,  customs,  constitutions,  royalties,  gov- 
ernments. Happy  is  he  who  knows  that  he 
knows  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  and  holds 
his  opinions  like  a  bouquet  of  flowers  in  his 
hand,  that  sheds  its  fragrance  everywhere, 
and  which  he  is  willing  to  exchange  at  any 
moment  for  one  fairer  and  more  sweet,  in- 


44  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

stead  of  strapping  them  on  like  an  armor  oi 
steel  and  thrusting  with  his  lance  those  who 
do  not  accept  his  notions." 

My  last  teacher  was — as  ought  to  be  the 
case  on  the  principle  of  climax — my  best.  I 
think  she  might  have  given  many  a  pointer 
to  folks  that  bring  up  children,  and  I  realized 
that  no  matter  how  one  may  think  himself 
accomplished,  when  he  sets  out  to  learn  a 
new  language,  science,  or  the  bicycle  he  has 
entered  a  new  realm  as  truly  as  if  he  were  a 
child  newly  born  into  the  world,  and  "  Ex- 
cept ye  become  as  little  children  "  is  the  law 
by  which  he  is  governed.  Whether  he  will 
or  not  he  must  first  creep,  then  walk,  then 
run ;  and  the  wisest  guide  he  can  have  is  the 
one  who  most  studiously  helps  him  to  help 
himself.  This  was  a  truism  that  I  had  heard 
all  my  life  long,  but  never  did  a  realizing  sense 
of  it  settle  down  upon  my  spirit  so  thoroughly 
as  when  I  learned  the  bicycle.  It  is  not  the 
teacher  who  holds  you  in  place  by  main 
strength  that  is  going  to  help  you  win  that 


"IT'S  DOGGHI)  AS  DOHS  IT." 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  45 

elusive,  reluctant,  inevitable  prize  we  call  suc- 
cess, but  it  is  the  one  who,  while  studiously 
keeping  in  the  background,  steers  you  to  the 
fore.  So  No.  12  had  the  wit  and  wisdom  to 
retire  to  the  rear  of  the  saucy  steed,  that  I 
might  form  the  habit  of  seeing  no  sign  of  aid 
or  comfort  from  any  source  except  my  own 
reaction  on  the  treadles  according  to  law; 
yet  cunningly  contrived,  by  laying  a  skilled 
hand  upon  the  saddle  without  my  observa- 
tion, knowledge,  or  consent,  to  aid  me  in  my 
balancing.  She  diminished  the  weight  thus 
set  to  my  account  as  rapidly  as  my  own  in- 
creasing courage  and  skill  rendered  this  pos- 
sible. 

I  have  always  observed — and  not  without 
a  certain  pleasure,  remembering  my  brother's 
hardihood — that  wherever  a  woman  goes 
some  man  has  reached  the  place  before  her; 
and  it  did  not  dim  the  verdure  of  my  laurels 
or  the  fullness  of  my  content  when  I  had 
mastered  Gladys  to  ascertain,  from  a  letter 
sent  me  by  the  wife  of  a  man  sixty-four 


46  A   WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

years  of  age  who  had  just  learned,  that  I  was 
"No.  2"  instead  of  "No.  I,"  thus  obliging 
me  to  rectify  the  frontier  of  chronology  as  I 
had  constructed  it  in  relation  to  the  conquest 
of  the  bicycle;  for  I  vainly  thought  that  I 
had  fought  the  antics  of  Gladys  as  a  sentry 
on  duty  away  out  on  the  extreme  frontier  of 
time. 

But  at  last  (which  means  in  two  months  or 
thereabouts,  at  ten  or  twenty  minutes'  prac- 
tice off  and  on  daily)  I  reached  the  goal,  and 
could  mount  the  bicycle  without  the  slightest 
foreign  interference  or  even  the  moral  sup- 
port of  a  sympathetic  onlooker.  In  doing 
this  I  realized  that  the  totality  of  what  I  had 
learned  entered  into  the  action.  Every  added 
increment  of  power  that  I  had  gained  in  bal- 
ancing, pedaling,  steering,  taking  advantage 
of  the  surfaces,  adjusting  my  weight  accord- 
ing to  my  own  peculiarities,  and  so  on,  was 
set  to  my  account  when  I  began  to  manage 
the  bulky  steed  that  behaves  worst  of  all 
when  a  novice  seeks  the  saddle  and  strikes 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  47 

out  alone.  Just  so,  I  felt,  it  had  been  all  my 
life  and  will  be,  doubtless,  in  all  worlds  and 
with  us  all.  The  totality  of  native  forces  and 
acquired  discipline  and  expert  knowledge 
stands  us  in  good  stead  for  each  crisis  that 
we  have  to  meet.  There  is  a  momentum,  a 
cumulative  power  on  which  we  can  count  in 
every  new  circumstance,  as  a  capitalist  counts 
upon  his  credit  at  the  bank.  It  is  not  only  a 
divine  declaration,  it  is  one  of  the  basic  laws 
of  being,  that  "  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God " — that  is,  to 
them  that  are  in  love  with  God ;  and  he  who 
loves  a  law  of  God  and  makes  himself  obe- 
dient to  that  law  has  by  that  much  loved 
God,  only  he  does  not  always  have  the  wit 
to  know  it. 

The  one  who  has  learned  latest  and  yet 
has  really  learned  the  mastery  of  the  bicycle 
is  the  best  teacher.  Many  a  time  I  have 
heard  boys  in  college  say  that  it  was  not  the 
famed  mathematician  who  could  teach  them 
anything — he  knew  too  much,  he  was  too 


48  A   WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

far  ahead  for  them  to  hear  his  voice,  he  was 
impatient  of  their  halting  steps ;  but  the  tutor 
who  had  left  college  only  the  year  before,  and 
remembering  his  own  failures  and  stupidity, 
had  still  that  fellow-feeling  that  made  him 
wondrous  kind. 

As  has  been  stated,  my  last  epoch  consisted 
of  learning  to  mount ;  that  is  the  flans  asinorum 
of  the  whole  mathematical  undertaking,  for 
mathematical  it  is  to  a  nicety.  You  have  to 
balance  your  system  more  carefully  than 
you  ever  did  your  accounts ;  not  the  smallest 
fraction  can  be  out  of  the  way,  or  away  you 
go,  the  treacherous  steed  forming  one  half  of 
an  equation  and  yourself  with  a  bruised  knee 
forming  the  other.  You  must  add  a  stroke 
at  just  the  right  angle  to  mount,  subtract  one 
to  descend,  divide  them  equally  to  hold  your 
seat,  and  multiply  all  these  movements  in 
definite  ratio  and  true  proportion  by  the 
swiftest  of  all  roots,  or  you  will  become  the 
most  minus  of  quantities.  You  must  foot  up 
your  accounts  with  the  strictest  regularity; 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  49 

there  can  be  no  partial  payments  in  a  business 
enterprise  like  this. 

Although  I  could  now  mount  and  descend, 
turn  corners  and  get  over  the  ground  all  by 
myself,  I  still  felt  a  lack  of  complete  faith  in 
Gladys,  although  she  had  never  harmed  me 
but  once,  and  then  it  was  my  own  fault  in 
letting  go  the  gleaming  cross-bar,  which  is 
equivalent  to  dropping  the  bridle  of  a  spirited 
steed.  Let  it  be  carefully  remembered  by 
every  "  beginning "  bicycler  that,  whatever 
she  forgets,  she  must  forever  keep  her  "  main 
hold,"  else  her  horse  is  not  bitted  and  will 
shy  to  a  dead  certainty. 

As  we  grew  better  acquainted  I  thought 
how  perfectly  analogous  were  our  relations  to 
those  of  friends  who  became  slowly  seasoned 
one  to  the  other :  they  have  endured  the  vicis- 
situdes of  every  kind  of  climate,  of  the  chang- 
ing seasons;  they  have  known  the  heavy, 
water-logged  conditions  of  spring,  the  shrink- 
age of  summer's  trying  heat,  the  happy  me- 
dium of  autumn,  and  the  contracting  cold  that 


50  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

winter  brings ;  they  are  like  the  bits  of  wood, 
exactly  apportioned  and  attuned,  that  go  to 
make  up  a  Stradivarius  violin.  They  can 
count  upon  one  another  and  not  disagree,  be- 
cause the  stress  of  life  has  molded  them  to 
harmony.  They  are  like  the  well-worn  robe, 
the  easy  shoe.  There  is  no  short  road  to  this 
adjustment,  so  much  to  be  desired ;  not  any 
will  win  it  short  of  "patient  continuance  in 
well-doing." 

I  noticed  that  the  great  law  which  I  believe 
to  be  potential  throughout  the  universe  made 
no  exception  here :  "  According  to  thy  faith 
be  it  unto  thee  "  was  the  only  law  of  success. 
When  I  felt  sure  that  I  should  do  my  pedal- 
ing with  judicial  accuracy,  and  did  not  permit 
myself  to  dread  the  swift  motion  round  a 
bend ;  when  I  formed  in  my  mind  the  image 
of  a  successful  ascent  of  the  "  Priory  Rise  " ; 
when  I  fully  purposed  in  my  mind  that  I 
should  not  run  into  the  hedge  on  the  one  side 
or  the  iron  fence  on  the  other,  these  pro- 
phecies were  fulfilled  with  practical  certainty. 


HOW  1  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  5  I 

I  fell  into  the  habit  of  varying  my  experience 
by  placing  before  myself  the  image — so  ger- 
mane to  the  work  in  which  I  am  engaged — of 
an  inebriate  in  action,  and  accompanied  this 
mental  panorama  by  an  orchestral  effect  of 
my  own  producing :  "  They  reel  to  and  fro, 
and  stagger  like  a  drunken  man;"  but  could 
never  go  through  this  three  consecutive  times 
without  lurching  off  the  saddle.  But  when  I 
put  before  me,  as  distinctly  as  my  powers  of 
concentration  would  permit,  the  image  of  my 
mother  holding  steadily  above  me  a  pair  of 
balances,  and  looking  at  me  with  that  quizzical 
expectant  glance  I  knew  so  well,  and  saying : 
"Do  it?  Of  course  you'll  do  it;  what  else 
should  you  do?"  I  found  that  it  was  palp- 
ably helpful  in  enabling  me  to  "  sit  straight 
and  hold  my  own  "  on  my  uncertain  steed. 
She  always  maintained,  in  the  long  talks  we 
had  concerning  immortality,  that  the  law  I 
mention  was  conclusive,  and  was  wont  to  close 
our  conversations  on  that  subject  (in  which  I 
held  the  interrogative  position)  with  some 


52  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

such  remark  as  this :  "  If  Professor thinks 

he  is  not  immortal  he  probably  is  not;  if  I 
think  I  am  I  may  be  sure  I  shall  be,  for  is  it 
not  written  in  the  law,  '  According  to  thy 
faith  be  it  unto  thee '  ?  " 

Gradually  I  realized  a  consoling  degree  of 
mastery  over  Gladys ;  but  nothing  was  more 
apparent  to  me  than  that  we  were  not  yet 
thoroughly  acquainted — we  had  not  sum- 
mered and  wintered  together.  I  had  not 
learned  her  kinks,  and  she  was  as  full  of 
them  as  the  most  spirited  mare  that  sweeps 
the  course  on  a  Kentucky  race-track.  Al- 
though I  have  seen  a  race  but  once  (and  that 
was  in  the  Champs  Elysees,  Paris,  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ago),  I  am  yet  so  much  interested 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  Flora  Temple,  a  Gold- 
smith Maid,  a  Maud  S.,  a  Sunol,  a  California 
Maid  that  often  stands  first  on  the  record,  that 
I  would  fain  have  named  my  shying  steed  after 
one  of  these ;  but  as  she  was  a  gift  from  Lady 
Henry  Somerset  this  seemed  invidious  in  me 
as  a  Yankee  woman,  and  so  I  called  her 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  53 

Gladys,  having  in  view  the  bright  spirit  of  the 
donor,  the  exhilarating  motion  of  the  machine, 
and  the  gladdening  effect  of  its  acquaintance 
and  use  on  my  health  and  disposition. 

As  I  have  said,  I  found  from  first  to  last  that 
the  process  of  acquisition  exactly  coincided 
with  that  which  had  given  me  everything  I 
possessed  of  physical,  mental,  or  moral  suc- 
cess— that  is,  skill,  knowledge,  character.  I 
was  learning  the  bicycle  precisely  as  I  learned 
the  a-b-c.  When  I  set  myself,  as  a  stint, 
to  mount  and  descend  in  regular  succession 
anywhere  from  twenty  to  fifty  times,  it  was 
on  the  principle  that  we  do  a  thing  more 
easily  the  second  time  than  the  first,  the  third 
time  than  the  second,  and  so  on  in  a  rapidly 
increasing  ratio,  until  it  is  done  without  any 
conscious  effort  whatever.  This  was  precisely 
the  way  in  which  my  mother  trained  me  to 
tell  the  truth,  and  my  music-teacher  taught  me 
that  mastership  of  the  piano  keyboard  which 
I  have  lost  by  disuse.  Falling  from  grace 
may  mean  falling  from  a  habit  formed — how 


54  ^   WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

do  we  know?  This  opens  a  boundless  field 
of  ethical  speculation  which  I  would  gladly 
have  followed,  but  just  then  the  steel  steed 
gave  a  lurch  as  if  to  say,  "Tend  to  your 
knitting  " — the  favorite  expression  of  a  Rocky 
Mountain  stage-driver  when  tourists  taxed 
him  with  questions  while  he  was  turning 
round  a  bend  two  thousand  feet  above  the 
valley. 

And  now  comes  the  question  "What  do  the 
doctors  say?"  Here  follow  several  testimo- 
nies: 

"  The  question  now  of  great  interest  to  girls 
is  in  regard  to  the  healthfulness  of  the  wheel. 
Many  are  prophesying  dire  results  from  this 
fascinating  exercise,  and  fond  parents  are 
refusing  to  allow  their  daughters  to  ride  be- 
cause they  are  girls.  It  will  be  a  delight  to 
girls  to  learn  that  the  fact  of  their  sex  is,  in 
itself,  not  a  bar  to  riding  a  wheel.  If  the 
girl  is  normally  constituted  and  is  dressed 
hygienically,  and  if  she  will  use  judgment 
and  not  overtax  herself  in  learning  to  ride, 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  55 

and  in  measuring  the  length  of  rides  after  she 
has  learned,  she  is  in  no  more  danger  from 
riding  a  wheel  than  is  the  young  man.  But 
if  she  persists  in  riding  in  a  tight  dress,  and 
uses  no  judgment  in  deciding  the  amount  of 
exercise  she  is  capable  of  safely  taking,  it  will 
be  quite  possible  for  her  to  injure  herself,  and 
then  it  is  she,  and  not  the  wheel,  that  is  to 
blame.  Many  physicians  are  now  coming  to 
regard  the  'wheel'  as  beneficial  to  the  health 
of  women  as  well  as  of  men." 

Dr.  Seneca  Egbert  says :  "  As  an  exercise 
bicycling  is  superior  to  most,  if  not  all,  others 
at  our  command.  It  takes  one  into  the  out- 
door air ;  it  is  entirely  under  control ;  can  be 
made  gentle  or  vigorous  as  one  desires;  is 
active  and  not  passive ;  takes  the  rider  out- 
side of  himself  and  the  thoughts  and  cares 
of  his  daily  work;  develops  his  will,  his  at- 
tention, his  courage  and  independence,  and 
makes  pleasant  what  is  otherwise  most  irk- 
some. Moreover,  the  exercise  is  well  and 
equally  distributed  over  almost  the  whole 


56  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

body,  and,  as  Parker  says,  when  all  the  mus- 
cles are  exercised  no  muscle  is  likely  to  be 
over-exercised." 

He  advocates  cycling  as  a  remedy  for  dys- 
pepsia, torpid  liver,  incipient  consumption, 
nervous  exhaustion,  rheumatism,  and  melan- 
cholia. In  regard  to  the  exercise  for  women 
he  says :  "  It  gets  them  out  of  doors,  gives 
them  a  form  of  exercise  adapted  to  their 
needs,  that  they  may  enjoy  in  company  with 
others  or  alone,  and  one  that  goes  to  the  root 
of  their  nervous  troubles." 

He  instances  two  cases,  of  girls  fourteen 
and  eighteen  years  of  age,  where  a  decided 
increase  in  height  could  be  fairly  attributed  to 
cycling. 

The  question  is  often  asked  if  riding  a  wheel 
is  not  the  same  as  running  a  sewing-machine. 
Let  the  same  doctor  answer:  "Not  at  all. 
Women,  at  least,  sit  erect  on  a  wheel,  and 
consequently  the  thighs  never  make  even  a 
right  angle  with  the  trunk,  and  there  is  no 
stasis  of  blood  in  the  lower  limbs  and  geni- 


LET  GO— BUT  STAND  BY 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  57 

talia.  Moreover,  the  work  itself  makes  the 
rider  breathe  in  oceans  of  fresh  air;  while 
the  woman  at  the  sewing-machine  works  in- 
doors, stoops  over  her  work,  contracting  the 
chest  and  almost  completely  checking  the 
flow  of  blood  to  and  from  the  lower  half  of 
her  body,  where  at  the  same  time  she  is  in- 
creasing the  demand  for  it,  finally  aggravat- 
ing the  whole  trouble  by  the  pressure  of  the 
lower  edge  of  the  corset  against  the  abdo- 
men, so  that  the  customary  congestions  and 
displacements  have  good  cause  for  their  ex- 
istence." 

"  The  great  desideratum  in  all  recreations 
is  pure  air,  plenty  of  it,  and  lungs  free  to  ab- 
sorb it."  (Dr.  Lyman  B.  Sperry.) 

"  Let  go,  but  stand  by  " — this  is  the  golden 
rule  for  parent  and  pastor,  teacher  and  friend  ; 
the  only  rule  that  at  once  respects  the  indi- 
viduality of  another  and  yet  adds  one's  own, 
so  far  as  may  be,  to  another's  momentum  in 
the  struggle  of  life. 

How  difficult  it  is  for  the  trainer  to  judge 


58  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

exactly  how  much  force  to  exercise  in  help- 
ing to  steer  the  wheel  and  start  the  wheeler 
along  the  macadamized  highway!  In  this 
the  point  of  view  makes  all  the  difference. 
The  trainer  is  tall,  the  rider  short;  the  first 
can  poise  on  the  off-treadle  while  one  foot 
is  on  the  ground,  but  the  last  must  learn  to 
balance  while  one  foot  is  in  the  air.  For 
one  of  these  perfectly  to  comprehend  the 
other's  relation  to  the  vehicle  is  practically 
impossible ;  the  degree  to  which  he  may  at- 
tain this  depends  upon  the  amount  of  imagi- 
nation to  the  square  inch  with  which  he  has 
been  fitted  out.  The  opacity  of  the  mind, 
its  inability  to  project  itself  into  the  realm  of 
another's  personality,  goes  a  long  way  to  ex- 
plain the  friction  of  life.  If  we  would  set 
down  other  people's  errors  to  this  rather  than 
to  malice  prepense  we  should  not  only  get 
more  good  out  of  life  and  feel  more  kindly 
toward  our  fellows,  but  doubtless  the  recti- 
tude of  our  intellects  would  increase,  and  the 
justice  of  our  judgments.  For  instance,  it  is 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  59 

my  purpose,  so  far  as  I  understand  myself,  to 
be  considerate  toward  those  about  me;  but 
my  pursuits  have  been  almost  purely  mental, 
and  to  perceive  what  would  seem  just  to  one 
whose  pursuits  have  been  almost  purely  me- 
chanical would  require  an  act  of  imagination 
of  which  I  am  wholly  incapable.  We  are  so 
shut  away  from  one  another  that  none  tells 
those  about  him  what  he  considers  ideal 
treatment  on  their  part  toward  him.  He 
thinks  about  it  all  the  same,  mumbles  about 
it  to  himself,  mutters  about  it  to  those  of  his 
own  guild,  and  these  mutterings  make  the 
discontent  that  finally  breaks  out  in  reforms 
whose  tendency  is  to  distribute  the  good 
things  of  this  life  more  equally  among  the 
living.  But  nothing  will  probe  to  the  core 
of  this  the  greatest  disadvantage  under  which 
we  labor — that  is,  mutual  non-comprehen- 
sion— except  a  basis  of  society  and  govern- 
ment which  would  make  it  easy  for  each  to 
put  himself  in  another's  place  because  his 
place  is  so  much  like  another's.  We  shall  be 


60  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

less  imaginative,  perhaps,  in  those  days — the 
critics  say  this  is  inevitable;  but  it  will  only 
be  because  we  need  less  imagination  in  order 
to  do  that  which  is  just  and  kind  to  every 
one  about  us. 

In  my  early  home  my  father  always  set  us 
children  to  work  by  stints — that  is,  he  mea- 
sured off  a  certain  part  of  the  garden  to  be 
weeded,  or  other  work  to  be  done,  and  when 
we  had  accomplished  it  our  working-hours 
were  over.  With  this  deeply  ingrained  habit 
in  full  force  I  set  myself  stints  with  the  bicycle. 
In  the  later  part  of  my  novitiate  fifty  attempts 
a  day  were  allotted  to  that  most  difficult  of  all 
achievements,  learning  to  mount,  and  I  cal- 
culate that  five  hundred  such  efforts  well 
put  in  will  solve  that  most  intricate  problem 
of  specific  gravity. 

Now  concerning  falls :  I  set  out  with  the 
determination  not  to  have  any.  Though 
mentally  adventurous  I  have  always  been 
physically  cautious ;  a  student  of  physiology 
in  my  youth,  I  knew  the  reason  why  I 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  6 1 

brought  so  much  less  elasticity  to  my  task 
than  did  my  young  and  agile  trainers.  I 
knew  the  penalty  of  broken  bones,  for  these 
a  tricycle  had  cost  me  some  years  before. 
My  trainers  were  kind  enough  to  encourage 
me  by  saying  that  if  I  became  an  expert  in 
slow  riding  I  should  take  the  rapid  wheel  as 
a  matter  of  course  and  thus  be  really  more 
accomplished  (in  the  long  run  as  well  as  the 
short)  than  by  any  other  process.  So  I  have 
had  but  one  real  downfall  to  record  as  the 
result  of  my  three  months'  practice,  and  it 
illustrates  the  old  saying  that  "  pride  goeth 
before  destruction,  and  a  haughty  spirit  be- 
fore a  fall " ;  for  I  was  not  a  little  lifted  up  by 
having  learned  to  dismount  with  confidence 
and  ease — I  will  not  say  with  grace,  for  at 
fifty-three  that  would  be  an  affectation — so 
one  bright  morning  I  bowled  on  down  the 
Priory  drive  waving  my  hand  to  my  most 
adventurous  aide-de-camp,  and  calling  out 
as  I  left  her  behind,  "  Now  you  will  see 
how  nicely  I  can  do  it — watch!"  when  be- 


62  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

hold !  that  timid  left  foot  turned  traitor,  and 
I  came  down  solidly  on  my  knee,  and  the 
knee  on  a  pebble  as  relentless  as  prejudice 
and  as  opinionated  as  ignorance.  The  ner- 
vous shock  made  me  well-nigh  faint,  the  bi- 
cycle tumbled  over  on  my  prone  figure,  and 
I  wished  I  had  never  heard  of  Gladys  or  of 
any  wheel  save 

"  Fly  swiftly  round,  ye  wheels  of  time, 
And  bring  the  welcome  day — " 

of  my  release  into  the  ether. 

Let  me  remark  to  any  young  woman  who 
reads  this  page  that  for  her  to  tumble  off  her 
bike  is  inexcusable.  The  lightsome  elasticity 
of  every  muscle,  the  quickness  of  the  eye,  the 
agility  of  motion,  ought  to  preserve  her  from 
such  a  catastrophe.  I  have  had  no  more  falls 
simply  because  I  would  not.  I  have  pro- 
ceeded on  a  basis  of  the  utmost  caution,  and 
aside  from  that  one  pitiful  performance  the 
bicycle  has  cost  me  hardly  a  single  bruise. 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  63 

AN   ETHEREAL   EPISODE 

They  that  know  nothing  fear  nothing. 
Away  back  in  1886  my  alert  young  friend, 
Miss  Anna  Gordon,  and  my  ingenious  young 
niece,  Miss  Katharine  Willard,  took  to  the 
tricycle  as  naturally  as  ducks  take  to  water. 
The  very  first  time  they  mounted  they  went 
spinning  down  the  long  shady  street,  with  its 
pleasant  elms,  in  front  of  Rest  Cottage,  where 
for  nearly  a  generation  mother  and  I  had  had 
our  home.  Even  as  the  war-horse  snuffeth 
the  battle  from  afar,  I  longed  to  go  and  do  like- 
wise. Remembering  my  country  bringing- 
up  and  various  exploits  in  running,  climbing, 
horseback-riding,  to  say  nothing  of  my  tame 
heifer  that  I  trained  for  a  Bucephalus,  I  said 
to  myself,  "  If  those  girls  can  ride  without 
learning  so  can  I!"  Taking  out  my  watch 
I  timed  them  as  they,  at  my  suggestion,  set 
out  to  make  a  record  in  going  round  the 
square.  Two  and  a  half  minutes  was  the  re- 
sult. I  then  started  with  all  my  forces  well 


64  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

in  hand,  and  flew  around  in  two  and  a  quarter 
minutes.  Not  contented  with  this,  but  puffed 
up  with  foolish  vanity,  I  declared  that  I  would 
go  around  in  two  minutes;  and,  encouraged 
by  their  cheers,  away  I  went  without  a  fear 
till  the  third  turning-post  was  reached,  when 
the  left  hand  played  me  false,  and  turning  at 
an  acute  angle,  away  I  went  sidelong,  ma- 
chine and  all,  into  the  gutter,  falling  on  my 
right  elbow,  which  felt  like  a  glassful  of 
chopped  ice,  and  I  knew  that  for  the  first 
time  in  a  life  full  of  vicissitudes  I  had  been 
really  hurt.  Anna  Gordon's  white  face  as 
she  ran  toward  me  caused  me  to  wave  my 
uninjured  hand  and  call  out,  "  Never  mind!" 
and  with  her  help  I  rose  and  walked  into  the 
house,  wishing  above  all  things  to  go  straight 
to  my  own  room  and  lie  on  my  own  bed, 
and  thinking  as  I  did  so  how  pathetic  is  that 
instinct  that  makes  "the  stricken  deer  go 
weep,"  the  harmed  hare  seek  the  covert. 

Two  physicians  were  soon  at  my  side,  and 
my  mother,  then  over  eighty  years  of  age, 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  65 

came  in  with  much  controlled  agitation  and 
seated  herself  beside  my  bed,  taking  my  hand 
and  saying,  "  O  Frank !  you  were  always  too 
adventurous." 

Our  family  physician  was  out  of  town,  and 
the  two  gentlemen  were  well-nigh  strangers. 
It  was  a  kind  face,  that  of  the  tall,  thin  man 
who  looked  down  upon  me  in  my  humilia- 
tion, put  his  ear  against  my  heart  to  see  if 
there  would  be  any  harm  in  administering 
ether,  handled  my  elbow  with  a  woman's 
gentleness,  and  then  said  to  his  assistant, 
"Now  let  us  begin."  And  to  me  who  had 
been  always  well,  and  knew  nothing  of  such 
unnatural  proceedings,  he  remarked,  "Breathe 
into  the  funnel — full,  natural  breaths ;  that  is 
all  you  have  to  do." 

I  set  myself  to  my  task,  as  has  been  my 
wont  always,  and  soon  my  mother  and  my 
friend,  Anna  Gordon,  who  were  fanning  me 
with  big  "palm-leaves,"  became  grotesque 
and  then  ridiculous,  and  I  remember  saying 
(or  at  least  I  remember  that  I  once  remem- 


66  A   WHEEL  WITHIN  A  WHEEL 

bered),  "  You  are  a  couple  of  enormous  crick- 
ets standing  on  your  hind  legs,  and  you  have 
each  a  spear  of  dry  grass,  and  you  look  as 
if  you  were  paralyzed;  and  you  wave  your 
withered  spears  of  grass,  and  you  call  that 
fanning  a  poor  woman  who  is  suffocating 
before  your  eyes."  I  labored  with  them,  en- 
treated them,  and  dealt  with  them  in  great 
plainness — so  much  so  that  my  mother  could 
not  bear  to  hear  me  talk  in  such  a  foolish 
fashion,  and  quietly  withdrew  to  her  own 
room,  closed  the  door,  and  sat  down  to  pos- 
sess her  so'ul  in  patience  until  the  operation 
should  be  over. 

Then  the  scene  changed,  and  as  they  put 
on  the  splints  pain  was  involved,  and  I  heard 
those  about  me  laughing  in  the  most  unfeel- 
ing manner  while  I  murmured :  "  She  always 
believed  in  humanity — she  always  said  she 
did  and  would ;  and  she  has  lived  in  this  town 
thirty  years,  and  they  are  hurting  her — they 
are  hurting  her  dreadfully ;  and  if  they  keep 
on  she  will  lose  her  faith  in  human  nature, 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  67 

and  if  she  should  it  will  be  the  greatest  calam- 
ity that  can  happen  to  a  human  being." 

Now  the  scene  changed  once  more — I  was 
in  the  starry  heavens,  and  said  to  the  young 
friends  who  had  come  in  and  stood  beside 
me :  "  Here  are  stars  as  thick  as  apples  on  a 
bough,  and  if  you  are  good  you  shall  each 
have  one.  And,  Anna,  because  you  are 
good,  and  always  have  been,  you  shall  be 
given  a  whole  solar  system  to  manage  just  as 
you  like.  The  Heavenly  Father  has  no  end 
of  them ;  He  tosses  them  out  of  His  hand  as 
a  boy  does  marbles ;  He  spins  them  like  a 
cocoon;  He  has  just  as  many  after  He  has 
given  them  away  as  He  had  before  He 
began." 

Then  there  settled  down  upon  me  the 
most  vivid  and  pervading  sense  of  the  love 
of  God  that  I  have  ever  known.  I  can  give 
no  adequate  conception  of  it,  and  what  I  said, 
as  my  comrades  repeated  it  to  me,  was  some- 
thing after  this  order : 

"  We  are  like  blood-drops  floating  through 


68  A  WHEEL  W1THM  A   WHEEL 

the  great  heart  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  We 
are  infinitely  safe,  and  cared  for  as  tenderly 
as  a  baby  in  its  mother's  arms.  No  harm 
can  come  anywhere  near  us;  what  we  call 
harm  will  turn  out  to  be  the  very  best  and 
kindest  way  of  leading  us  to  be  our  best 
selves.  There  is  no  terror  in.  the  universe, 
for  God  is  always  at  the  center  of  everything. 
He  is  love,  as  we  read  in  the  good  book,  and 
He  has  but  one  wish — that  we  should  love 
one  another ;  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being." 

Little  by  little,  freeing  my  mind  of  all  sorts 
of  queer  notions,  I  came  back  out  of  the 
only  experience  of  the  kind  that  I  have  ever 
known ;  but  I  must  say  that  had  I  not  learned 
the  great  evils  that  result  from  using  anes- 
thetics I  should  have  wished  to  try  ether 
again,  just  for  the  ethical  and  spiritual  help 
that  came  to  me.  It  let  me  out  into  a  new 
world,  greater,  more  mellow,  more  godlike, 
and  it  did  me  no  harm  at  all. 

During  the  time  my  arm  was  in  a  sling  I 


HOW  1  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  69 

"  sat  about " — something  not  easy  to  do  for 
one  of  active  mind  and  life.  I  learned  to 
write  with  my  left  hand — for  this  was  before 
the  happy  days  of  the  many  stenographers — 
and  my  hieroglyphics  went  out  to  all  the 
leading  temperance  women  of  this  country. 
One  morning  the  bell,  distant  and  musical, 
tolled  in  the  steeple  of  the  university.  We 
knew  it  meant  that  General  Grant  was  dead, 
for  the  newspapers  and  despatches  of  the 
previous  evening  had  prepared  us.  Some- 
how a  deep  chord  in  my  soul  vibrated  to  the 
tone  of  the  bell — a  chord  of  patriotism — and  I 
went  away  to  the  vine-covered  piazza,  where 
I  was  wont  to  sit,  and  in  twenty  minutes 
(which  fact  is  my  apology  for  their  limping 
feet)  wrote  out  my  heart  in  the  following  lines. 
They  had  at  least  the  merit  of  sincere  devo- 
tion, and  were  telephoned  to  Chicago,  eleven 
miles  away,  by  Anna  Gordon,  and  appearing 
in  the  daily  Inter-Ocean  were  read  at  their 
breakfast-tables  by  many  other  patriots  next 
morning.  I  do  not  know  when  anything  has 


70  A   WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

given  me  more  real  pleasure  than  to  be  told 
that  a  stalwart  soldier  belonging  to  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  read  my  crude  but 
heartfelt  lines  aloud  to  his  wife  and  daughter, 
and  at  the  close  brushed  away  a  manly  tear. 


GRANT   IS  DEAD. 


On  Hearing  the  University  Bell  at  Evanston,  III.  ,  Toll  for 
the  Death  of  General  Grant  at  Nine  O'clock  A.M., 
July  23, 


Toll,  bells,  from  every  steeple, 
Tell  the  sorrow  of  the  people  ; 
Moan,  sullen  guns,  and  sigh 
For  the  greatest  who  could  die. 
Grant  is  dead. 

Never  so  firm  were  set  those  moveless  lips  as  now, 
Never  so  dauntless  shone  that  massive  brow  ; 
The  silent  man  has  passed  into  the  silent  tomb. 

Ring  out  our  grief,  sweet  bell, 

The  people's  sorrow  tell 

For  the  greatest  who  could  die. 
Grant  is  dead. 

"  Let  us  have  peace!  "   Great  heart, 

That  peace  has  come  to  thee  ; 
Thy  sword  for  freedom  wrought, 

And  now  thy  soul  is  free, 
While  a  rescued  nation  stands 

Mourning  its  fallen  chief  — 


HOW  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  71 

The  Southern  with  the  Northern  lands, 

Akin  in  honest  grief. 
The  hands  of  black  and  white 

Shall  clasp  above  thy  grave, 
Children  of  the  Republic  all, 

No  master  and  no  slave. 
Almost  "  all  summer  on  this  line  " 
Thou  steadily  didst  "  fight  it  out " ; 
But  Death,  the  silent, 
Matched  at  last  our  silent  chief, 
And  put  to  rout  his  brave  defense. 

Moan,  sullen  guns,  and  sigh 

For  the  bravest  who  could  die. 
Grant  is  dead. 

The  huge  world  holds  to-day 

No  fame  so  great,  so  wide, 
As  his  whose  steady  eyes  grew  dim 

On  Mount  McGregor's  side 
Only  an  hour  ago,  and  yet 
The  whole  great  world  has  learned 
That  Grant  is  dead. 

O  heart  of  Christ !  what  joy 

Brings  earth's  new  brotherhood! 

All  lands  as  one, 

Buckner,  Grant's  bed  beside, 

The  priest  and  Protestant  in  converse  kind ; 

Prayers  from  all  hearts,  and  Grant 

Praying  "  we  all  might  meet  in  better  worlds." 

Toll,  bells,  from  every  steeple, 

Tell  the  sorrow  of  the  people ; 

So  true  in  life,  so  calm  and  strong, 

Bravest  of  all,  in  death  suffering  so  long 


72  A   WHEEL   WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

And  without  one  complaint! 
Moan,  sullen  guns,  and  sigh 
For  the  greatest  who  could  die ; 
Salute  the  nation's  head. 
Our  Grant  is  dead. 


IN    CONCLUSION 

If  I  am  asked  to  explain  why  I  learned  the 
bicycle  I  should  say  I  did  it  as  an  act  of  grace, 
if  not  of  actual  religion.  The  cardinal  doctrine 
laid  down  by  my  physician  was,  "  Live  out  of 
doors  and  take  congenial  exercise;"  but  from 
the  day  when,  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  I  was 
enwrapped  in  the  long  skirts  that  impeded 
every  footstep,  I  have  detested  walking  and 
felt  with  a  certain  noble  disdain  that  the  con- 
ventions of  life  had  cut  me  off  from  what  in 
the  freedom  of  my  prairie  home  had  been 
one  of  life's  sweetest  joys.  Driving  is  not 
real  exercise;  it  does  not  renovate  the  river 
of  blood  that  flows  so  sluggishly  in  the  veins 
of  those  who  from  any  cause  have  lost  the 
natural  adjustment  of  brain  to  brawn.  Horse- 
back-riding, which  does  promise  vigorous  ex- 
ercise, is  expensive.  The  bicycle  meets  all 


AT  LAST." 


HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  RIDE  73 

the  conditions  and  will  ere  long  come  within 
the  reach  of  all.  Therefore,  in  obedience  to 
the  laws  of  health,  I  learned  to  ride.  I  also 
wanted  to  help  women  to  a  wider  world,  for 
I  hold  that  the  more  interests  women  and 
men  can  have  in  common,  in  thought,  word, 
and  deed,  the  happier  will  it  be  for  the  home. 
Besides,  there  was  a  special  value  to  women  in 
the  conquest  of  the  bicycle  by  a  woman  in 
her  fifty-third  year,  and  one  who  had  so  many 
comrades  in  the  white-ribbon  army  that  her 
action  would  be  widely  influential.  Then 
there  were  three  minor  reasons : 

I  did  it  from  pure  natural  love  of  adven- 
ture— a  love  long  hampered  and  impeded,  like 
a  brook  that  runs  underground,  but  in  this 
enterprise  bubbling  up  again  with  somewhat 
of  its  pristine  freshness  and  taking  its  merry 
course  as  of  old. 

Second,  from  a  love  of  acquiring  this  new 
implement  of  power  and  literally  putting  it 
underfoot. 

.  Last,  but  not  least,  because  a  good  many 
people  thought  I  could  not  do  it  at  my  age. 


74  A  WHEEL  WITHIN  A   WHEEL 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  a  bicycling  cos- 
tume was  a  prerequisite.  This  consisted  of 
a  skirt  and  blouse  of  tweed,  with  belt,  rolling 
collar,  and  loose  cravat,  the  skirt  three  inches 
from  the  ground;  a  round  straw  hat,  and 
walking-shoes  with  gaiters.  It  was  a  simple, 
modest  suit,  to  which  no  person  of  common 
sense  could  take  exception. 

As  nearly  as  I  can  make  out,  reducing  the 
problem  to  actual  figures,  it  took  me  about 
three  months,  with  an  average  of  fifteen  min- 
utes' practice  daily,  to  learn,  first,  to  pedal ; 
second,  to  turn;  third,  to  dismount;  and 
fourth,  to  mount  independently  this  most 
mysterious  animal.  January  2Oth  will  always 
be  a  red-letter  bicycle  day,  because  although 
I  had  already  mounted  several  times  with  no 
hand  on  the  rudder,  some  good  friend  had 
always  stood  by  to  lend  moral  support ;  but 
summoning  all  my  force,  and,  most  forcible 
of  all,  what  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson 
declares  to  be  the  two  essential  elements — de- 
cision and  precision — I  mounted  and  started 


HO W  I  LEARNED   TO  RIDE  75 

off  alone.  From  that  hour  the  spell  was 
broken;  Gladys  was  no  more  a  mystery:  I 
had  learned  all  her  kinks,  had  put  a  bridle  in 
her  teeth,  and  touched  her  smartly  with  the 
whip  of  victory.  Consider,  ye  who  are  of  a 
considerable  chronology :  in  about  thirteen 
hundred  minutes,  or,  to  put  it  more  mildly, 
in  twenty-two  hours,  or,  to  put  it  most  mildly 
of  all,  in  less  than  a  single  day  as  the  almanac 
reckons  time — but  practically  in  two  days  of 
actual  practice — amid  the  delightful  sur- 
roundings of  the  great  outdoors,  and  inspired 
by  the  bird- songs,  the  color  and  fragrance  of 
an  English  posy-garden,  in  the  company  of 
devoted  and  pleasant  comrades,  I  had  made 
myself  master  of  the  most  remarkable,  inge- 
nious, and  inspiring  motor  ever  yet  devised 
upon  this  planet. 

Moral :  Go  thou  and  do  likewise! 


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